Watch Is It In the Bible? The Cult of the Saints and Martyrs

A lecture on Early Christian Belief & Practice. Continuing the traditions of the Jews and pagans, Christians early on started collecting and venerating the remains of holy men and women. But relic veneration easily lent itself to fraud, theft, and superstition. The Church had to rein in the enthusiasm for relic promotion, a task particularly made urgent by the onset of the Protestant Reformation.